They are match stats that many players would jump at - 34 touches and a telling goal.

But Dale Thomas was still feeling the heat after being lumped into a forward line described as "terrible" by Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse following an eight-point AFL loss to the Brisbane Lions on Saturday night.

A surly Malthouse couldn't hide his frustration after the once high-flying Magpies (7-3 record) dropped their second straight match - and their first away game since round 22, 2008.

Collingwood led by as much as 20 points in the third term but were still toppled by a Lions outfit inspired by Jonathan Brown and Brendan Fevola (both four goals).

"Forwards were terrible," Malthouse said.

"We got the ball inside 50 54 times, so the ball is in there - you've just got to score." Alan Didak, Steele Sidebottom and Chris Dawes each kicked two goals, however, John Anthony (one major) and Travis Cloke (none) failed to fire.

Thomas stood tall, appearing to give the Magpies the spark they needed by booting his sole major at the start of the fourth term to hand the visitors a nine-point buffer.

However, despite their chances, Collingwood conceded four of the next five goals in another dent to their confidence following their last round loss to Geelong.

After only kicking 6.14 against the Cats, Collingwood racked up more scoring shots against the Lions but still fell 13.10 (88) to 11.14 (80) in front of 34,239 fans at the Gabba on Saturday night.

While one of Collingwood's standouts on Saturday night, Thomas put his hand up after Malthouse's scathing assessment of the Magpies forward line.

"We probably just didn't take our chances," Thomas said on the Collingwood website.

"We didn't put enough score on the board in that first half when we were probably playing the better footy.

"We had the ball inside 50 a bit in the second and third quarters and didn't really put them away and they would go down and Fev (Brendan Fevola) would kick a couple, so that's probably one of the factors." But Fevola's efforts weren't considered a factor by Malthouse.

He also didn't think much of the unavailability of injured Magpies duo Paul Medhurst and Leon Davis.

"Not really. Their form hasn't been sensational so I wouldn't be getting too caught up in it," Malthouse said.

"We'll sit back and analyse it, we're not going to start making any rash changes now." Malthouse pointed to the stat sheet for solutions, namely being beaten 430 to 385 in the disposal count.

"They (Lions) closed the game down and we couldn't get the ball," Malthouse said.

"We've had two sides now that have had nearly 450 possessions each against us in the last two weeks - we're just not getting the footy." Thomas said the Pies had to return to their attacking brand of footy against the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium next Sunday.

"It's not all doom and gloom," Thomas said.

"We've just got to re-group now and we've got another big game against the Bulldogs this week, a chance to rectify it."

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